A late-night treat for you that made me laugh, although part of the reason is because Trump is such a transactional politician himself. He’s doing his anti-establishment shtick here to try to stoke populist lefty anger at Biden but no one understands mutual favors better than President Art Of The Deal. Watch, then read on.
President Trump on Klobuchar, Buttigieg dropping out: "Probably they'll say 'hey look if I win, I'll put you in the administration. That's called quid-pro-quo, right?" pic.twitter.com/hjDh8hNHqJ
— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) March 2, 2020
The other funny part is that … Biden unknowingly admitted that Trump was right in an interview elsewhere today.
Just finished 1 on 1 interview with @JoeBiden after his event @TexasSouthern Asked him about reports @PeteButtigieg and @amyklobuchar will endorse him tonight in #Dallas. #Biden wouldn't confirm but did say this ⬇️ #khou11 #HtownRush pic.twitter.com/Acer6Vghul
— Marcelino Benito (@MarcelinoKHOU) March 2, 2020
“I indicated to him that if I became the nominee, I’d come and ask him to be part of an administration.” What job could a new president possibly find for a guy whose chief experience is former mayor of a smallish midwestern city? It has to be HUD, right? HUD’s the place where you put guys with little governing practice so that they can’t do much harm in case they screw up (e.g., Ben Carson) and/or ambitious young pols who are looking for an administration credential to brighten their resume for when they run for president (e.g., Julian Castro). Seems like the perfect spot for Pete.
I mean, it’s not like he has a pet issue that would clearly recommend him for a job in some other department. His core argument for electing him president was that he’s really, really smart. There’s no Department of Rhodes Scholars.
He’ll do a year at HUD, establish residency in Virginia, then run for governor there. Watch.
Bernie weighed in today too on Buttigieg’s and Amy Klobuchar’s endorsements of Biden with a hard shot at “establishment politicians,” as you’ll see below. I need to fact-check him on one thing he says, though, when he claims that he’s winning working-class voters everywhere, including South Carolina. According to the SC exit poll, Biden won 50 percent of voters without a college degree (they made up 60 percent of the electorate), doing slightly better in that group than he did with college grads. Did Bernie mean that he’s doing better with white working-class voters everywhere? Because that’s nice, but the whole point of Biden’s big win is that there’s more to the Democratic Party than the white voters who put him over the top in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Exit question: Does Trump really think he’s accomplishing anything with this “it’s rigged against Bernie” pandering? Literally everyone understands that he’s trying to drive a wedge between progressives and mainstream Dems. But progressives hate his guts; if anything, having Trump voice a potential grievance of theirs makes it easier for mainstream liberals to say to them, “You’re playing right into Trump’s hands,” if/when they complain about Sanders being overwhelmed by Biden’s establishment support.
The moderate wing of the Democratic Party is consolidating- but make no mistake the @BernieSanders campaign knew it was coming. This is how Sanders responsed to @elizacollins1 question on the topic:
“Why should I be surprised that establishment politicians are coming together?” pic.twitter.com/W0NbF03Mwn— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) March 2, 2020
